


wind.

by steamedmantou



Series: 30 day tumblr challenge [3]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-11
Updated: 2013-02-11
Packaged: 2017-11-28 23:38:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/680180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steamedmantou/pseuds/steamedmantou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU, vaguely futuristic. kuroko, a sickly child, receives a new friend one day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	wind.

**Author's Note:**

> first completed/posted on tumblr: feb 6/7, 2013  
> first revised: feb 11, 2013

            On his thirteenth birthday, Kuroko Tetsuya is given a wind up doll, magnificent and life sized.  It is an android, one of the pseudo-human robots that have been populating the markets.  It's the latest model with state of the art artificial intelligence built into each circuit.  The complexity of its construction is hidden under skin organic in every way but origin.

            Its manual tells him the android's name is Aomine Daiki, and that he would keep running without any fuel or any need for maintenance, save for the occasional turn of the key above his heart.  Being a sickly child, Tetsuya had rarely socialized and never made any friends.  Tetsuya approaches his new companion with trepidation, unsure about how he should act.  He has no point of reference for how he ought to behave around his peers.  His childhood was spent with doctors and professional caretakers, with his parents hovering at the edges.  It was time, his parents had decided, for Tetsuya to have a friend, so, being sufficiently wealthy, they had commissioned an android to be made for their son.  There was little risk of transmittable disease and infection from artificial life.  “Play nice now,” his parents had told him.   “Learn how to socialize.”  So when Tetsuya goes to wind Daiki up and the dark blue eyes flicker with life he greets him with a polite "Aomine-kun." 

            The first words out of Daiki's mouth are spoken with a cheeky grin.  "Stuuuupid, why are you calling your newest belonging by its last name?"

            Tetsuya will never once refer to Daiki as a possession, nor does he think it at this very moment.  Now, he smiles back, a surprisingly easy feat, and repeats, "Aomine-kun," with an inflection of playful challenge.

            Daiki is built to match Tetsuya's age and mental development, though he towers a head above Tetsuya and has an athlete's build, tanned, agile and muscular, unlike Tetsuya's pale and fragile constitution.  Daiki will continue to learn and develop mentally as a human would, the manual says, but he will never age. 

            They hit it off immediately.  Maybe it's because Tetsuya has never had anyone to play with outside his isolated inner world, fashioned from his books and his toys, or maybe Daiki's mischievous charm is a natural magnet for the quiet, reclusive boy.  They spend their time chattering endlessly, Daiki asking questions about everything, Tetsuya telling him about the things he's learned in his home-school lessons.  Tetsuya talks endlessly in turn, finally having someone to tell about all the things he's read in books, on the online information networks.  They are never left wanting for movies and video games, not even the newest deep immersion virtual reality games.  When they'd exhausted all the sit-down games, they start making up games with rules that only they understand, silly versions of hide and seek, catch, scavenger hunts.  And when that got boring, they move on to physical games, learning sports in the modest but well-equipped gym of Tetsuya's home, built in holographic simulators pulling up all the different arenas of their choosing.  Basketball is their favourite.

            Eventually even the physical activity offered by sports grows unexciting, and Daiki urges Tetsuya to go explore the world outside the confines of their sterile home.  Any reluctance Tetsuya expresses is blown away from a simple, teasing smile from his only friend, and Tetsuya agrees.  They sneak past the house's relaxed security sensors.  Living the edge of the sparkling silver city, safe and isolated, there had never been any reason to program stricter security protocols, and Tetsuya had never been the type to sneak out of the house, before.  The air is not hazardous as Tetsuya has always been told, nor the rays of the sun lethal, nor the sway of the trees and song of the birds harmful to his health.  He finally gets to see the sky, after years of watching it behind glass panes.

            They explore the fields around their home, and then the forest, making games of splashing in creeks and catching cicadas and crayfishes.  Every time they prepare to slip out of the house Tetsuya's heart pounds, not with the irregularity of sickness but of excitement.  They spend the nights planning their next excursion, staying up late into the early hours of the morning.  When they are outside, Daiki always leads, darting through the wild as if he lives there.  Tetsuya trails behind, taking a while to become accustomed to the distance of their outings and Daiki's ever-changing pace.  It takes him some time, between the distractions of listening to far-off bird calls and breathing in all the scents of the forest, so much more complex and unlike the sterilized and oxygenated air of his home.  But before long, Tetsuya can follow at an arm's length behind Daiki, as they run unmarked trails beneath the sheltering foliage of ancient trees.  They sneak out dozens, hundreds of times before they are finally caught, and neither one of them is apologetic at all.

            Throughout all their time together, Tetsuya watches Daiki and envies the way he can exist with such boundless energy, without any need for sustenance or visits to a doctor.  The only 'looking after' Daiki needs is for Tetsuya to wind him up again in his occasional bouts of lethargy or sloth.  Tetsuya looks at his rigid schedule of appointments and tests, and at all the bland prepared meals he gets three times a day, with little cups of pills to top it all off.  Sometimes, he asks, "Aomine-kun, why can't I be more like you?" to which he only gets a grin in reply.

            A year passes and Tetsuya is more energetic than he's ever been, owing to Daiki, of course, and maybe to all those lessons skipped and all the trips outdoors.  He's grown a little taller too, but he's still nowhere near as tall as Daiki, and he doubts he ever will be.

            To everyone's surprise Tetsuya's latest round of checkups and tests come back favourably, forecasting greater health for the present.  His doctors and caretakers are astounded, his parents even more so, having already resigned themselves to their fragile son’s future spent wasting away in a box hidden away from the world.

            So they say to him, "Tetsuya, since the doctors say your health has improved a great deal, and anticipate that you'll be well enough to leave your retreat, do you want to join us in the city?"

            Tetsuya says yes, faster than thought, ready to rejoin the world that until now only seemed like an elaborate piece of fiction. 

            There was no question that he would be taking Daiki along with him, and Tetsuya tells his parents as much.  His parents do not object, but they are surprised when Tetsuya asks that Daiki lives as he does, afforded the same treatment and given the same lessons, if he wanted.  Androids were typically used as servants and labourers, and seldom lived the life of a human.  But they agree, because Tetsuya had asked, and they saw no harm.

            Not long after they are whisked away to the city that always seemed to be nothing more than a shining ornament in the frame of their window.  Their new home is in an affluent, well-kept area of the city, far away from the swarming, layered city.  From their new home, the reflective skyscrapers look as though they are missiles aiming for the sky.  There, in the new, quiet house, not entirely different from their isolated retreat, they are given rooms of their own.  At first Daiki scoffs, saying they didn't need separate rooms, but it stuck and the matter is not raised again.

            There is not much time before Tetsuya is to begin school, so he is assigned a private tutor to prepare him for the days ahead.  He works hard, desperate to catch up with the world that had left him behind.

            Daiki was welcome to join him in the lessons, and he does, in the beginning.  Before long Daiki starts complaining that he's bored, and Tetsuya always tells him, indulgently, "I don't mind, you can go play."  Daiki would watch from afar, basketball in his hands, always inviting, wordlessly, for Tetsuya to join him.  Tetsuya never does.  Afterwards, when Tetsuya studies and reviews the day's lessons, Daiki would sit next to him quietly, building towers out of cards.

            On the rare days that they have free time Tetsuya and Daiki are allowed to go to the city, with a caretaker in tow.  They take in the sights, see the landmarks, and climb the towering levels of the infrastructure.  Daiki only ever shrugs at what he sees.  "The forest is way better than all this metal stuff," he says. 

            One time, Tetsuya and Daiki sneak off, like they used to.  The endless cycle of spotless parks and public observatories had gotten tedious.  They wander out past the edges of the city, over the rails that cordon off the platforms that held the city up.  What they find is not the slums, per se, because the lower layers of the old city that the modern one was built over are completely deserted, inhabitable; in ruins.  They come across an old basketball court, its concrete paving cracking in tributaries, like veins.  When they make their way back they are scolded much more severely than they had been, back when they had done the same at the house by the forest.  When Tetsuya and Daiki are finally allowed outings again, they are watched much more closely.

            With the arrival of spring Tetsuya is ready to attend school.  His health is in good condition, guaranteed by the doctors.  He begins the year with a touch of anxiety.  Daiki would not be attending school with him.  It is the first time in two years that the two of them would be apart.  School is different; it had been so long since he'd spent time with so many others of his age.  None of his new classmates are as open, or lively, or bright as Daiki is.  Tetsuya does not meet anyone who likes basketball.

            In the following days, Tetsuya has little time to spare for play, with all his homework and school duties.  He could barely spend any time with Daiki, who, at first, hovers around him, trying to get his attention.  Occasionally, Daiki asks, petulant, "Hey, Tetsu, can't we go back to the house by the forest, just the two of us?" and all Tetsuya can do is look at him blankly and say, "I'm sorry, Aomine-kun.  I can't.  I have obligations here."

            Eventually Tetsuya makes friends at school.  He spends a few days after school every week with the literature club and never considers joining any of the sports clubs.

            Daiki had become much quieter as of late, spending much of the day asleep.  Tetsuya has to turn his key with much greater frequency.  Daiki is often irritable when he wakes. 

            Now, on the weekends, Tetsuya sometimes has plans with his friends.  They could not schedule anything after school, as all of them had strict curfews.  Tetsuya could never bring himself to tell Daiki that he couldn't spend the day with him so he doesn't, just leaves the house without a word.

            One time Tetsuya isn't discreet enough.  Daiki catches him at the door.  These days, Tetsuya always has to wake him, so he does not expect that Daiki is up. 

            "Hey, Tetsu," Daiki asks, his usual smile missing.  "Have you replaced me?"

            Tetsuya is taken aback.  "No, of course not," he says, quickly.  "Don't be silly."  The words sound false in the air, and he cannot help but feel guilty.  He means it, he would never replace Daiki – he couldn't – but Tetsuya knows that he's been neglecting Daiki as of late.

            "I promise we'll spend more time together when I get back," Tetsuya says, as he opens the door.  "Okay?"

            That afternoon, Tetsuya returns home as the sun is beginning to set.  His parents, like always, are not home, occupied elsewhere.  Tetsuya looks for Daiki and finds him in the kitchen, cutting lines across his forearm with a knife meant for flesh.  Before Tetsuya can even react, the skin is already resealing itself, as though nothing had happened at all.  There is no blood, not even traces of liquid suggesting internal circulation.

            Daiki looks up.  Seeing Tetsuya, Daiki asks him quietly, "Tetsu, why can't I be more like you?"

            Tetsuya does not know what to say so he lets the silence speak instead.  He walks over and holds Daiki's wrist, waiting till the knife falls from his grasp.  Tetsuya's hand trembles around Daiki's wrist.  He wraps his other arm around Daiki, feeling the warmth bleed from underneath his skin.  The heat is artificial, an illusion conjured by the mass of circuitry in his construction, but it's _real_.  "Aomine-kun," Tetsuya says, his voice muffled in Daiki's shirt, "please don't ever do that again."

            After that day Tetsuya takes time to seek Daiki out, asking if maybe he'd like to play a game, or take a walk, but more often than not Daiki brushes him off with a wry grin, saying, "Nah.  I want to sleep."  One of the times Tetsuya goes to find him, Daiki tells him, "Thanks.  I'm glad I belonged to you."  Tetsuya wants to slap him and say to him, I have never once thought of you as my belonging, but he does not.  Instead he tells Daiki, curtly, "Don't be stupid," and leaves his room in frustration.

            One day Tetsuya goes to wake Daiki up.  He's sleeping like he always is lately, so Tetsuya reaches for his heart.  But no matter how many times Tetsuya turns the key and calls his name, Daiki won't wake up, won't open his eyes.

 


End file.
